I don't want to live in a wilderness, but i would want to greatly reduce mandatory social interactions i have to do daily. Its emotionally draining and stressful.
Almost everything we do can be automated, but people still insist on face-to-face interaction(or at minimum voice/video chat) and there is this herding behavior that forces people to adjust their beliefs and thoughts to conform to current in-group paradigms(the comparison with ant colonies ITT is on point).
All the 24/7 media exposure and rat race of consumerism eventually take their toll on mental health(the polar opposite of "hermit slowly losing their minds") with people becoming psychotic and dependent on pills to function.
There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone
91–100 of 183 posts
Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being social and being sociable often conflated. Every time you buy something from Amazon, drink tap water, or live in a dwelling that you didn't build yourself, you are being a social creature. Few animals are capable of interacting in these highly complicated and choreographed ways.
What animals also do this ?
Bees, ants, and other social insects have complex societies with division of labor. One difference is that in insects, the roles are probably more hard-wired and instinctual while in humans these roles are more malleable and depend on culture.
Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone
#93Being alone and hiking and camping in the wilderness without human contact for longer period can be amazing experience. There can be initial anxiety and intense desire to go back after romance goes away and your internal shit comes to light. When there is constant need for do chores to survive but also free time and no human contact, no books, radio or music, mind gradually settles into itself. It's like coming from…
I know the feeling you are talking about but I don't think that you're any less you when you're around people and external stimuli, you're just the you that are when you are around people and external stimuli. No more or less you than the you that you are when you are alone, just different.
Group-think wouldn't be a thing if people didn't lose a large part of themselves in social environments, it isn't until after after you leave the environment that you will recognize that your thoughts were dictated by the group.
Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone
#94My personal theory for explaining hermits throughout history is simple, these people had/have aspergers. I have aspergers myself, and I can very easily see someone who has aspergers who for whatever reason no longer wants to socialize anymore getting up and doing their own thing out in isolation. I don't truly believe that any neurotypical person, and for that matter many aspies could do it, but if you're brain is wi…
> these people had/have aspergers [...] and simply have no interest exhausting the effort
I don't think it _necessarily_ needs to be aspergers for that. I have OCD regarding, e.g., remembering exactly what people said, and it makes social situations exhausting.
Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone
#95It baffles me that people think it's so shockingly outlandish that there are people who don't reactionarily buy into the tribalistic pressures around us to simply act like everyone else. Humanity is not homogeneous, yet some notions like these are always projected out to be considered an immutable, inescapable constant. I can only guess that's that same fear of being different shining through. I presume that on sites…
> buy into the tribalistic pressures around us to simply act like everyone else
Does anyone else appreciate the delicious irony that parent is hitting all the right notes for an appeal to the tribe while at the same time criticizing tribalism?
1. Establish an 'us' vs. 'them' distinction ('I presume on sites like this') 2. Subtly denigrating outsiders ('draws many people outside the superficial social norms.') 3. Establishing higher common values ('That conflict causes a choice, we would seek to do the "better" thing')
Trying to be original, individualistic, and nonconformist what everyone is taught in the US from an early age.
Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone
#96Being alone and hiking and camping in the wilderness without human contact for longer period can be amazing experience. There can be initial anxiety and intense desire to go back after romance goes away and your internal shit comes to light. When there is constant need for do chores to survive but also free time and no human contact, no books, radio or music, mind gradually settles into itself. It's like coming from…
I like very much how you describe this thing with words like "triggers" and "disappearing into network", that feels exactly this way for me too.
Where is this place, where you can hike for a week without seeing any other human?
Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone
#97It baffles me that people think it's so shockingly outlandish that there are people who don't reactionarily buy into the tribalistic pressures around us to simply act like everyone else. Humanity is not homogeneous, yet some notions like these are always projected out to be considered an immutable, inescapable constant. I can only guess that's that same fear of being different shining through. I presume that on sites…
There are very real evolutionary pressure on humans to be social and pliant and buy into the notion that society is a net good, whether it be a tribal one or a more modern version. Just think about it: the outliers get ostracized and more often than not don't pass on their genes to the next generation. Until very recently, we had extremely tribal behavior among human societies as well. So it makes sense that most peo…
Being social and socially pliant are not the same thing. Speaking from personal experience.
I'm almost reflexively rebellious but also crave social interaction. It kind of sucks, actually.
Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone
#98The idea of introverts and extraverts being distinct groups of people with completely different neurological responses to social situations is a largely false one, created by self-help woo merchants to unhelpfully pathologise the feeling that EVERYONE has from time to time that they want to be left the fuck alone. You know what? It's a normal, neurotypical part of life as a homo sapiens to want to be by yourself some…
I agree with that based on my personal experience so far.Sometimes I want to be alone not being disturbed or interrupted by other people.But my friends will think that something happened to me, in reality I just want to be alone without any company.
In other time I talk to people, go out and enjoy with friends.
Again most of the time I like be alone doing what I like to do.
Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone
#99Being alone and hiking and camping in the wilderness without human contact for longer period can be amazing experience. There can be initial anxiety and intense desire to go back after romance goes away and your internal shit comes to light. When there is constant need for do chores to survive but also free time and no human contact, no books, radio or music, mind gradually settles into itself. It's like coming from…
I know the feeling you are talking about but I don't think that you're any less you when you're around people and external stimuli, you're just the you that are when you are around people and external stimuli. No more or less you than the you that you are when you are alone, just different.
"triggers that fire based on conditioning"
If one is living by reaction, or conditioning, it's as if one's behaviour is a series of reflex actions - the world tapping on your knee. Sure, it's "you" in a sense, this "you' is unique and has a "personality". But since it's only operating on the outer layer of your nervous system, is it really "you"? Different, and less.
I've noticed that it's not so much my choices that conform, but the way of thinking about them, the value system, the set of choices. My own thinking can evaporate, a dream on waking.
I stressed that "if". It's not necessary to live by reaction. There's a famous quote about this difficulty of keeping the independence of solitude while in the world... (Kipling?)
Re: There Have Always Existed People Who’ve Simply Wanted to Be Alone
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your mention of going from bright light to a dark room is literally my current working life. I shoot cameras for image quality, which often necessitates a dark room. I've come to prefer the room dark even when I'm not shooting. The past few weeks of where I live, the outdoors has been rather bright... so leaving the lab room dark has become even more attractive. About two months ago I went to the eye doctor with the…
Very interesting story. Also it's mildly weird to see such a correct/appropriate use of the word 'literally'.
The OED has redefined it so you literally can't use it incorrectly anymore.
Of course because of that it literally has no meaning now.